


Deleted Scene 2: Will Thanks Robin

by paladin_cleric_mage



Series: I Want to Break Free [4]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:27:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24578293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paladin_cleric_mage/pseuds/paladin_cleric_mage
Summary: Corresponds to Chapter 46: Max
Series: I Want to Break Free [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1419694
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	Deleted Scene 2: Will Thanks Robin

Robin doesn’t stop at the phone. She walks Will through the front door and sits on the porch steps, pulling him down beside her. Summer sun illuminates her face and golden bird’s nest of hair. Her eyes are an overwhelming gemstone blue, unlike the clean pool-blue of Max’s and far more lively than his own, which El has called _pretty_ but stare back at him in the mirror lacklusterly.

Mike says he can tell by Will’s eyes whether he’s here or not. Breakfast started uncomfortably this morning, the treasured ease developing between them compromised by his looming departure and Mr. Wheeler’s droning talk of Reagen and sports. Will watched Mike across the table, appreciating the flexing of his jaw as he chewed, the angle of his wrist commanding the fork. His bare arms, Will noticed too, went unnoticed by Mr. Wheeler. He was still gazing when Mike-- minutes later, he was told-- kicked him under the table. Mr. Wheeler’s beady eyes were on him. _I asked you a question, son._ If the man repeated it, Will has no recollection. He lost time again and found himself standing in the upstairs bathroom, Mike touching the sides of his face. _Will? Will, I’m right here. Nod if you can hear me._ He’d nodded numbly and reached up for Mike’s hands. Effortlessly their fingers laced-- (what magic, this shared adoration!)-- but he couldn’t feel it. A few more minutes passed before he fully returned, pulled safely to Mike’s chest, their bellies softly expanding against each other.

“Did he say anything,” Robin asks, “after we left the other night? About, I don’t know… anything?”

“We had a fight,” Will nods. “The worst we’ve ever had.”

She slouches in despair. “Please tell me you guys resolved it?”

“If we hadn’t, would I have stayed until this morning?”

“Wait, you didn’t come home last night to see El?”

“No.” He blushes at his hands in his lap. Hands that hours ago played with Mike’s wavy hair. He already misses him. “We needed another night together.”

“Wow. In that case, I’m surprised he didn’t follow you over here.”

“He wanted to, but Mr. Wheeler held him back.”

There’s a beat of silence, then Robin quietly intones, “Did he say anything about, like, himself? What he’s been doing lately?”

Will sighs, understanding she needs to hear it. “Yeah, he showed me the cuts.” It is at once a relief to share the load and an enormous disappointment, a blunt reminder of what Mike is capable of.

“Do you know what happened to the blade? I wasn’t thinking, I should have taken it, but--”

He reaches into his pocket for the box cutter. “This morning he gave it to me, but only because I asked.” He rolls the boxcutter in his palm and looks at her. “Robin, he wouldn’t have told me if you hadn’t said something at the door. Thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me. You’re the one who helped Steve!” She laughs awkwardly. “Wait, you really don’t think he would have told you, later, or like, the next day?”

“Definitely not. Mike is a lot of things, most of all protective. He wanted to protect my feelings by hiding it. He’d have hid it until I found out some other way.”

“That’s stupid,” she shakes her head. “I told him to let you in on it. I mean, you just said it. You guys _need_ each other more than anyone else right now, and you’re the most compassionate person I know, so of course you’d understand.”

He disagrees. “I don’t understand, though. Not hurting yourself on purpose like that. It’s my mom and El who are the most compassionate. Look, she got me this.” He digs into his other pocket and turns up a glossy stone, a furl of smoke-like grit frozen inside quartz. “It’s supposed to help me with my dreams.” Robin wants to hold it but he curls it into his hand. “Sorry. El said I’m the only one who’s supposed to touch it.”

“Fair. You better let us know how it helps, dreamer.”

“I will,” he smiles, putting the crystal and boxcutter back inside their respective pockets. “Hey, Robin?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think he’ll do it again?”

She softens. “Hopefully he’ll be able to stand up against what happens in his head. You know, fight for himself instead of fight _himself_. But,” she lets Will down gently, “he might not have that kind of control.”

“Do you think he’ll kill himself?”

“No, no way. He loves you too much. He wouldn’t do that to you.”

“You just said he might not have control. What if he loses himself?” _Like I do,_ he thinks. He and Mike share the same fear about each other. What if one day Mike loses himself and Will isn't there? He'd couldn't bear it. “Do you think I could save him?”

“We can’t save everyone. You know that.”

An unacceptable truth.


End file.
